Member's Press Release

Support For West Virginia Future Fund Growing As Lawmakers Prepare For North Dakota Trip

CHARLESTON, W.V. – Senate President Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) announced today that representatives of West Virginia’s business, industry and labor communities will accompany lawmakers to North Dakota this week to learn more about its legacy fund.

“We have a good cross-section of people who represent all aspects of West Virginia making the trip,” says Kessler. “I look forward to talking to legislative leaders and those responsible for implementing the Legacy Fund and learning from their economic development efforts.”

North Dakota Legacy Fund was created in 2011 and is funded by oil and gas tax revenue; it reached the $1 billion milestone in only 20 months.

“The concept of such a future fund holds tremendous potential, as well as other successes that North Dakota has experienced in managing their energy resources,” says Kessler. “I am very interested in what the state’s experience can teach us.”

Senate President Kessler has proposed a similar fund for the Mountain State, the West Virginia Future Fund. President Kessler he has worked over the past three years to develop this significant investment in our state’s financial future and says a permanent endowment future fund will create real wealth and opportunity that will last long after the natural gas is gone.